{"id":6040,"date":"2017-06-20T16:47:47","date_gmt":"2017-06-20T23:47:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/?p=6040"},"modified":"2025-12-05T16:50:03","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T00:50:03","slug":"research-project-rolls-into-el-dorado-county-fair-as-a-restored-covered-wagon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/2017\/06\/20\/research-project-rolls-into-el-dorado-county-fair-as-a-restored-covered-wagon\/","title":{"rendered":"Research Project Rolls into El Dorado County Fair as a Restored Covered Wagon"},"content":{"rendered":"

6-24-2011 Sherilyn M. Lum-Alarcon: “I had the pleasure of working on this project through Cooper Woodson Sac State. It is wonderful to see it completed and being used so well and lovingly at the El Dorado County Fair<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

Sacramento State Professor Shirley Moore, her husband, Joe Moore, and William Pettis led the effort to create a full-size replica of a covered wagon. Sacramento State Professor Shirley Moore\u2019s research on African Americans who took part in the overland migration of 1841-1869 has inspired a group of people to create a living example of that time \u2013 a handmade, full-size replica of a covered wagon.<\/p>\n

The project, \u201cSweet Freedom\u2019s Plains: African Americans on the Overland Trails 1841-1869\u201d was requested by the National Park Service. Moore says not much was known about this group of pioneers, and she\u2019s reached out to their descendents to learn more about them. \u201cI uncovered so many wonderful stories about who they were and why they came west,\u201d Moore says.<\/p>\n

One of those stories involves Hiram Young, a freed slave who owned and operated a renowned wagon-making company in Independence, Mo., prior to the Civil War. Young employed slaves and freemen, paying all of them the same wage and allowing the slaves to buy their freedom. His family also operated a farm that grew the foodstuffs the pioneers would need on their trip.<\/p>\n

\u201cYoung cornered the market in Independence on producing wagons,\u201d Moore says. \u201cOne of his contemporaries said that you could look out over the prairie, and as far as the eye could see you saw Hiram Young wagons going west.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moore\u2019s project was an inspiration to her husband, Joe. \u201cIn reading the kind of material she was coming across, I was amazed at the stories she was telling,\u201d he says. \u201cI wanted to do something visual. Something to tie people to the project.\u201d<\/p>\n

So he decided to build a full-size covered wagon, enlisting the help of William Pettis, a horse breeder and founder of the 10th Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers reenactors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t have any blueprints for this thing,\u201d Pettis says. \u201cWe had sketches of what they looked like, so a lot of it was like, \u2018Well, let\u2019s try this and see how it works.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Smaller than a Conestoga wagon, the bright orange and green replica is basically a large, covered farm wagon, 12 feet by 5\u00bd feet, which was more typically used by pioneers.<\/p>\n

The undercarriage is authentic, made in the 1800s by P. Schuttler\u2019s Chicago Wagons and found through the Hansen Wheel and Wagon Shop in South Dakota. The wagon\u2019s bed \u2013 the base, side boards, frame for the canvas top, and various storage boxes \u2013 was handmade.<\/p>\n

Moore and Pettis were helped in their yearlong effort by several students from Sacramento State\u2019s Woodson College, volunteers from the Center for Sacramento History, and Al Holland, a lecturer in Sacramento State\u2019s History Department.<\/p>\n

Vanessa Beals, a Health Science major at Sacramento State, was one of the volunteers, helping wherever she could, whether painting or hammering nails into place. She got involved in the effort through the Cooper-Woodson College Enhancement Program, and has enjoyed learning the history behind the project. \u201cAfter learning about the journey the pioneers took, I want to know more about it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

More support came from about 20 local and state organizations, including Sacramento State\u2019s Center for California Studies, Los Rios College Federation of Teachers, the Sacramento Observer, Wells Fargo and the California State Parks Foundation.<\/p>\n

The Sacramento chapter of the Teamsters National Black Caucus has assumed the duty of transporting the wagon to various display locations the next few months. The wagon is currently at the African American Museum and Library in Oakland, will return to Sacramento for Gold Rush Days over Labor Day weekend, and in October will go on permanent display at Marshall Gold Discovery Park in Coloma.<\/p>\n

Shirley Moore hopes the displays will generate more information on the African-American westward migration. People who are descendants of these pioneers, have information or materials about them, or items such as letters, diaries, journals or artifacts are invited to contact the Black Overland Trails Wagon Project at (916) 278-5363 or\u00a0www.csus.edu\/cooper<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

6-24-2011 Sherilyn M. Lum-Alarcon: “I had the pleasure of working on this project through Cooper Woodson Sac State.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":"","darknews-slider-full":"","darknews-featured":"","darknews-medium":"","darknews-medium-square":""},"author_info":{"display_name":"News MoLo","author_link":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/author\/admin\/"},"category_info":"News<\/a>","tag_info":"News","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6040"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6040"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6041,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6040\/revisions\/6041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}